


Fear Itself

by WhyAreYouLaughing



Series: Drabbles From Arcadia Bay [11]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Gen, Phobias
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-01 10:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16283063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyAreYouLaughing/pseuds/WhyAreYouLaughing
Summary: Drabbles about the many phobias that the residents of Arcadia Bay deal with.





	1. Athazagoraphobia

**Author's Note:**

> Athazagoraphobia:
> 
> Fear of being forgotten.
> 
> Characters:
> 
> Chloe, Rachel, Max.
> 
> Pairings:
> 
> Chloe/Max, past Rachel/Chloe.

Chloe Price wasn’t an easy person to forget.

She was loud and obnoxious; she was noticeable, and God did she do everything she can to make it that way.

Because being unforgettable means having a permanent place in someone’s memory. It means having a spot in their lives.

Even if all Chloe is to them is a teenage delinquent, then that’s fine. She’ll take whatever she can get.

It hurts being left.

The boring and bland girl who she once was obviously wasn’t enough to keep Max’s attention while she had it.

So Chloe fights with the rich kids at Blackwell and spray paints every surface she can. She dyes her hair blue and laughs when Rachel compliments it.

Her vocabulary becomes filled with swear words, and she’s actually happy when the police report labels her as high risk.

People know her name, even if it isn’t in the way that the little girl from so long ago wanted it to be.

One day she suggests to Rachel that they should get matching tattoos. Of course, the inspiring model agreed, because Rachel wanted to be noticed just as much as her.

(It was more subtle for sure, but it was still there; in every performance that her parents miss and the perfection that she tries desperately to achieve)

Chloe decides to get a full sleeve completed with a skull wrapped in thorns and roses, since that fits who they already think she is.

Somehow she also settled on a few butterflies, and if they resemble the ones that Max use to draw, the it was just a coincidence.

(They were inked blue, to the surprise of neither Chloe or Rachel)

—————————

She’ll be nineteen when she’s faced with being forgotten and left to die in a bathroom.

Chloe wonders what’s taking Max so long to go back in time while rain continues to pound onto the soaked ground around them.

A photo is ripped in half instead, and she watches as it gets picked up in the wind.

“No.” Is all Max says.

Together, they watch everyone they know die.

(It’s a fresh start, she supposes)


	2. Stygiophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stygiophobia:
> 
> Fear of Hell.
> 
> Character:
> 
> Nathan Prescott

Nathan Prescott doesn’t believe in any God.

Because no all loving deity would watch as all their subjects murder each other.

Killing someone with a gun or knife might be illegal, but one doesn’t have to look further than Kate Marsh to know that words can kill too.

It’s ironic that she’s the Christian.

Blackwell Academy is filled to the brim with sinners; with people who have problems that they don’t know how to deal with.

The stoners, getting high 24/7 because everyone already knows that they aren’t going anywhere in life. So they accept that role, and smoke another joint.

The Vortex Club members, all from backgrounds of too much money and too much neglect. Their parents never taught them how to love.

There’s exceptions, as there always is, but even those exceptions have problems too.

No other way to explain Dana Ward’s appointment with the abortion clinic. The one that Victoria almost leaked until Juliet and Hayden stepped in.

Yeah, they’re all going to hell.

If there was one.

Which brings Nathan to his next point, you can’t be punished with something that doesn’t exist.

He just wants to think that after his death there will finally be something resembling peace.

That may make him a coward, but the existence of God isn’t a good thing for people like him.

Though if it is, he’ll be seeing a lot of familiar faces.

(The fact that Victoria would almost certainly be there with him, actually scares Nathan)

Either way, he will probably figure out soon enough.


	3. Gamophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gamophobia:
> 
> The fear of commitments.
> 
> Character:
> 
> Rachel Amber
> 
> Pairings:
> 
> Rachel/Frank (Mentioned), Rachel/Chloe (Mentioned)

When Rachel was a kid, she would play with her toys only if they were new, and quickly grew bored of them.

It was a behaviour that constantly frustrated her parents, as they wasted a small fortune in trying to keep her entertained.

Things just stop catching and holding her attention as more time goes by.

It resulted in many dusty barbies sitting on shelves and expensive battery-operated gadgets left to burn out in the corner of her room.

She grows up, but she never grows out of this habit.

Just instead of stuffed animals, it’s the boys and girls from school. Most of her hookups are from the Vortex Club; of course they are.

There’s usually alcohol involved as it’s a convenient excuse for both sides insisting that nothing happened.

She has one-night stands with everyone from Logan to Dana. Some kids in her class note that she has no gender preference.

It’s called being bi, genius. Rachel wants to say, instead she settles for a wink.

There are things that she can’t do, and breaking the mysterious image that she put on for herself is one of them.

Besides with Frank and Chloe.

It’s already too late to keep on her masks around them. They know the truth, who she really is.

It’s been a while since she jumped onto a train with a stranger.

It’s been a while since her drug-dealer saved her life.

They weren’t meant to get so close to her, and now Rachel doesn’t know how to leave without hurting them.

She can’t stay either, because she can’t choose between them. Rachel can’t break one of their hearts.

She’s stuck.

She’s stuck with no where to go.

(And when Mark Jefferson offers her an outlet, she takes it)


	4. Apokleistikephobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apokleistikephobia:
> 
> Fear of being disowned.
> 
> Characters:
> 
> Victoria, Nathan, Taylor.

Victoria hates the word “disowned.”

Partly because she’s Victoria fucking Chase, and she was never owned by anyone in the first place; people would do best to remember that.

Mainly though, it’s because she swears that her parents take great pleasure in mentioning how they could do it to her whenever they so please.

Whether it’s a grade under an A, or some friend who doesn’t fit their cookie-cutter criteria, it’s always something. Victoria always does something.

She’s their kid.

Maybe that means that they really do own her. She hates it either way.

Victoria hates having to watch her words when she’s talking, and having to play the part that she’s told to, but they can take away everything she is.

She lived her life being told that she’s constantly on thin ice. Whatever for, it usually involves acting human.

(Victoria is a Chase though, and they are far beyond the mere limitations and emotions of everyone else)

It’s one of the reasons that she hates Maxine Caulfield.

They are so similar.

Photographers whose whole reason for coming to Blackwell was their role model who turned out to be a psychopath.

Two young adults who lost both of their best friends in one fell swoop. In a single impulsive action.

The differences are crucial however.

Max’s parents have been said to be supportive over her missing Chloe Price.

Victoria’s parents on the other hand simply sent her an email, criticizing her for befriending an unstable boy.

Never mind that they used to condone and even praise her for that relationship; all because they wanted to use the Prescott connection.

It’s honestly pathetic, how hypocritical they are.

With every word they speak, Victoria has to bite her tongue, because Nathan is not just a troubled youth and Taylor is not just a useless middle-class girl.

(“You don’t have to listen to them,” Taylor suggests one day, when it’s raining outside and there’s no where else to go.

“Of course I do,” Victoria corrects, stating the sad truth, “They’re my parents. They can ruin me.”

“The fact that you even think about that,” her friend slowly says, “Means that they failed as parents.”)

[Maybe they failed as parents. Maybe she failed as the good daughter.]

It’s not like being middle-class is even an insult anymore; all money causes for those born into it is a bunch of dysfunctional family members.

(“I hate them,” The smoke from Nathan’s cigarette flows from his mouth as he speaks, “They don’t care about me.”

Victoria doesn’t reply, but Nathan can still tell she’s thinking about her own family.

“We have each other,” He eventually promises, “That’s all that matters.)

She sometimes wonders if she would give up all her wealth to gain back—if she ever had it—some sense of normality.

After what happened in the last few weeks, Victoria knows she would.


	5. Phasmophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phasmophobia:
> 
> Fear of ghosts.
> 
> Characters:
> 
> Max, Chloe, Victoria, Nathan, Warren, Kate.
> 
> Pairings:
> 
> Chloe/Max

[Max is a twelve year old girl afraid of the dark, and her best friend holds her close, whispering that it’s scientifically impossible for ghosts to exist]

(She’s now eighteen with too much blood on her hands, and she isn’t so sure of that anymore)

Max sees spirits in places that memories of them took place.

(Victoria is on the doorstep of Max’s apartment, covered in paint and baring a pissed expression that Max can’t believe she misses)

(Nathan is in the hallway, hiding his face in his hands and sobbing like a child. Max tries to not stare, even if he isn’t really there)

(Kate is a figure standing on the rooftop; a hopeless look in her eyes and her hand wrapped around her cross like it’s her lifeline)

(Warren is by her side at night, an arm around her, and a cup grasped in his grip. He whispers reassurances in her ear like he did before)

(And because of some merciless God, Max watches every poster flicker until it displays a blonde girl with chocolate eyes. MISSING is slurred across the top)

The doctors tell her it’s all just in her head, but Max already knows that. The thing is, half of the things haunting her are just in her head, so that’s no help.

Chloe offers her a beer, complete with a resigned sigh, then the blue-haired girl opens one for herself and forgets about the fact that she’s an orphan.

Max doesn’t like getting drunk though, it reminds her too much of when she was stumbling through a junkyard; betrayal and despair fresh in her heart.

That same numb feeling of not being able to feel your own hands.

(It brings her back to the Dark Room)

[“I’m scared, Max.” Victoria’s lying on the ground, hands tied and a tremble in her tone.

“It’s going to be okay.” She promises, “We’re going to get out of this.”]

[It’s not]

[They don’t]


End file.
